A host of medical devices include a connector bore into which a connector terminal of an electrical lead, or catheter, is inserted in order to make electrical connection with the device so as to form a medical system. Each insulated conductor, extending within a body of the lead, couples a lead electrode and or other electrically activated sensor to an electrical contact element formed on the connector terminal, and each contact element is engaged by a contact within the device connector bore when the connector is fully inserted within the bore.
Each electrical connection, between contact and contact element, within the bore must be isolated from another, and from the environment outside the bore, so that the connector terminal typically includes sealing rings positioned in between each contact element and at a distal end of the connector. The sealing rings deform upon insertion of the connector terminal into the bore and sealingly engage one or more internal surfaces of the bore when the connector terminal is fully inserted. Connector terminals conforming to IS-1 and DF-1 pacemaker industry standards are examples of connector terminals including sealing rings.
In an alternative configuration, sealing rings are included within a device connector bore rather than on the connector terminal; the rings within the bore sealingly engage one or more surfaces, or seal zones, on the connector terminal. It is desirable that connector terminals, for mating with such connector bores, be dimensionally stable both acutely and chronically so that both contact elements and seal zones are properly engaged with connector bore contacts and sealing rings, respectively, when the connector terminal is first fully inserted into the bore and then over the life of the coupling between the device and the lead.